"This is my 21st year of coaching and the first day of pads is always tough. You would think that it is exciting but what happens is their emotions get to them early and there's a big lull in the middle of practice because of all that heat and extra weight sets in on them and they're hitting. All you can do is just hope that they'll regain some momentum in the last team period and play tough. I think that's what we did. It got a little squirrelly out here during the team period, we got into it a little bit, but there's nothing wrong with that."

"I think both sides competed very well at the end. We were sloppy on both sides of the ball - that's what happens when you get fatigued - you start losing those details. They competed very well at the end. "

On emotions: "You just have to be smart and you have to have good leadership on your team because you have to take care of each other. What happens is you are in shorts for the first three days and everybody looks great in shorts and everybody runs around and does a lot of talking and all that fun stuff. But then you get pads in and the real football players start showing up and the real football players want to hit somebody - that's what real football is all about. You have to be smart, you have to have a veteran team that understands the big picture which is we are all in this together and we all want to win. We still have to be tough, though, and we still have to hit."

On offense: "I thought Ahmad Paige stood out today just by competing all the way through practice. We have 10 receivers and seven of them went out with either cramping or some sort of injury. We were left with jus three there at the end with him [Ahmad], Tim Molton and Phillip Livas there at the end. They competed at the end and then we had a couple guys that normally don't get a ton of reps that got a chance to go in there for quite a bit. I thought Ray Holley competed really well. Cruz Williams competed today. "

On what Ray Holley brings to the team: "It's a whole different dimension to your offense because you can literally score on every single play. I think once it is all said and done and we get the starters and they get on the field, I think that we're going to be an offense that score from anywhere on any play. We are going to have about four or five guys that can take it the distance at any time. It makes the play calling a little bit easier when you have a guy that can make some guys miss and get 20 [yards] on a play blocked for five."

On defense: "I get a chance to see the defensive backs every day, up close and personal. I will tell you what, Josh Victorian is probably one of the best corners I've been around in 20 years. He really is. Justin Goodman competed very well today. He went against Tim Molton and Ahmad Paige every other play and he really was physical and out-jumped them a couple times to knock it down."

On tomorrow's practice: "Tomorrow is going to be a huge leadership day. Everyone is going to be tired. Everyone is going to be hurting. There are some guys that are going to be out so there will be some guys getting more reps than they usually would. You're going to see a team that needs some leadership. After a while, they get tired of the coaches yelling at them. But when their teammate tells them `Hey, you have to pick it up out there, we need you,' it means a little more to them. So we need to get some leadership tomorrow. It will be a good day to gauge our leadership on this football team."